So no doubt you’re just as excited regards the JAX Tyres / EVolution announcement as we are! If you’ve ever spoken with any of the team at EVolution, you’ll know we live and breathe electric vehicles. So having a major outlet announce their commitment to sustainable transport and decide to roll out a nationwide charging network to 89 locations means as much to us as ”Team EVolution” as it does to us as individuals, who live the #EVLife.

The Tech

There’s been many requests for more information since the announcement last month. So what are the details? When will each site be EV Ready? Why the AURA and the Tritium products? Here’s what we can share…

Each site will be equipped with a minimum of a dual socket 22Kw universal EVSE. The AURA, from Charge-Amps, has been chosen by JAX Tyres as the preferred EVSE for all of its 89 branches. We recommended the AURA as it’s competitively priced, offered better features than other commercial grade products and presents as a quality build. Crucially and often overlooked in the market, the AURA won on aesthetics too; the AURA is a very attractive unit and that definitely counts. So many times we see featureless and quite frankly, ugly white boxes deployed in public spaces which have no design aesthetic whatsoever. Sure the AURA looks good in pictures but it’s even more staggeringly beautiful in person. One more benefit of the AURA platform; it’s constructed of recycled aluminium which unlike other chargers, can obviously be recycled again at the end of its useful life.

The AURAs are universal chargers meaning you will need to BYO cable to suit your car to get a top up. Universal chargers are becoming the norm for corporates and councils as they prefer reduced maintenance and liability.

The DC fast chargers will typically be 25-100kw units and will be strategically deployed at locations on high traffic transit routes. As you might expect, JAX and EVolution want the best bang for buck. Given the DC Fast chargers cost tens of thousand of dollars to procure and even more to deploy, it’s important they are located where they will be of the greatest benefit to the EV community. The final DC Fast Charger locations are tentatively agreed but still under discussion and we will make announcements as soon as everything is finalised.

What’s in it for JAX Tyres?

If you represent a corporate then pay attention to this bit. The announcement is nothing short of groundbreaking and remarkable for the EV community and will certainly accelerate the migration to sustainable transport in Australia. That’s a bold but valid statement and here’s the thing, the investment JAX are making in EV is relatively small beer compared to the overall capital investment of their business for 2019. For that moderate investment, they’ve received national coverage and attributable sales which can be tracked back to the campaign and the genuine gratitude of the EV community.

Throughout the development process, Steve Grossider the JAX CEO was adamant about this. The JAX EV network is all about benefit to the EV community and encouraging mainstream EV adoption in Australia. If a JAX customer (who owns a petrol or diesel car) observes a vehicle getting a top up while he or she waits for tyres, then this helps normalise electric vehicles. If the same customer learns that a fast top up can be had for free and in so many locations, then maybe just maybe they’ll consider an electric vehicle as their next car.

When will my local JAX be ”EV Ready”?

We’re still developing the deployment schedule. Some sites are dependent upon the JAX renovation schedule, council approvals or franchisee discussions. That said, we’re not messing about and we’ve already started the deployments to the Kwinana, Hawthorn and Coffs Harbour sites and these should go live within the next few weeks. The programme will only accelerate from there. Here’s to a sustainable future with help from the JAX and EVolution partnership.

Should you have any further questions, please don’t hesitate to come back to us via social media, email or phone. We’d be more than happy to answer any questions you may have!

Finally, if you have any preference for deployment priority to fill in any charging blackspots, let us know below and we’ll do our best to prioritise!

Queensland is a state that is fast becoming known as the Australian hot spot for electric vehicles (EVs), is the home to the Electric Super Highway.

“The fact that drivers can travel approximately 1800km, from Coolangatta to Cairns, using the latest EV charging technology gave Hyundai the impetus it needed to invest into bringing its Ioniq electric vehicle to Australia, and choosing Queensland as itslaunch padinto the Australian market,” Transport and main roads minister Mark Bailey says.

“Tritium is changing the face of the global EV industry and is a great home-grown Queensland success story.”

Would you believe that 33% of all homes in Australia have rooftop solar panels installed? With our favourable weather and government incentives, we’re addicted to generating our own power from the sun with the hope of reducing power costs.

But of course, the laughably low feed-in tariff has reduced the ROI on many solar systems. It’s still hard to believe that those that have chosen to invest in renewable power are only paid roughly 10c per kwh when the sun shines, but the power companies have no problem charging close to 35c per kwh when pulling from the grid.

The obvious answer is battery storage which will enable the efficient reuse of excess solar energy but these options require further investment and a longer look at the ROI.

The only alternative is to self-consume and not export to the grid at all! Until now this has been an arduous process – we have to manually watch solar generation and use what we can during sunny days (turn on the washing machine, charge the car etc) to make the best use of the self-generated power.

But not anymore!

The myenergi range of products is designed to monitor the power generated by your solar or wind generated system and divert to high power sources.

zappi wall charger

The Zappi EVSE Electric vehicle charger will selectively charge your electric vehicle depending on how much power is being generated. It can also be used as a standard wall charger and EVSE. So on a good solar day, ALL the power used to charge your car could be from your own renewable source!

myenergi eddi enegery diverter

The eddi is more flexible and powerful again! It can divert excess self-generated power to up to two power hungry devices. So for many of our customers, they will divert power to their electric hot water system and/or their pool pump. In this solution, the hot water system essentially acts like a battery, efficiently storing energy when surplus solar power is available.

Let’s compare costs:

Battery storage system: up to $15,000 ROI = 8-10 years!

Myenergi eddi diverter: $679 ROI = 2-3 years

The eddi (and zappi) can be installed by any registered electrician.

So what are you waiting for? Take control of your self-generated power and reduce your power bills today! Both the eddi and zappi are available in our online shop.